How'd it go today?

Alabama did ok given Randy Owens age. Did a little spruce removal and now about to elevate and clearance prune a few river birch. Hopefully I’ll get home in time to take a nap before heading back over to the venue. Hank Williams Jr is headlining tonight. A bunch of other 80’s and 90’s country singers before him as well. I better get moving now. No rest for the wicked.
 
Just finished replacing a piston and cylinder on a friend's MS261. The saw is almost brand new but got straight gassed. The newest model has a different fin configuration on the cylinder for the rounded plastic body cover. I had to shave a couple fins and sand down the top in order to get the plastic cover to fit. But it fired right up and seems to run fine. I don't have a bar and chain to test run it but it's ready to go back home.
 
Went to the shooting range as a work outing. Never had much experience with guns before. We were able to shoot a variety of pistols and assault rifles. I much preferred the assault rifles. It was a lot of fun.

Still, running a large saw does more for me than shooting a large gun. And, the saws makes money!
 
Also, guns are more expensive. It's like sending *50¢ pieces downrange.

*or much more expensive. Or better. .22 is pretty affordable for wasting money.
 
Cory, most Danish arborists can't even file a saw correctly, and sure as shit can't put a big tree into a tight lay.

I'm sure they are way better trained in the US.

This is not the first time I've seen a tree bid on an out of this World amount of money, because the bidder didn't have the skills or the balls/ovaries to just drop it.

Do you honestly think that the fact that I fell more trees in a month than most arborists do in 10 years, doesn't make me more precise when it comes to squeezing something into a tight lay?

I wasn't trying to piss on anybody, sorry if it came off that way.

Remember the tree felling video made by Mark Chisholm, where all the pro fallers ( Not just ego boosting me) said crap?
One hell of a arborist, but he'd starve trying to make a living on a logging show.
 
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Well, the around-the-world trip has stalled in California. I stayed a few extra days to take care of the sick grandson so daughter and son-in-law could crank out a hard deadline submission on a movie script. It’s a neat, stop-motion (claymation) movie about the animals in a final forest inspired by the claymation artist witnessing the ravaging fires and displacement which happened in Australia a few years back. I wish I could harness such youthful energy. Not even walking yet and he is in constant motion!! We ‘both’ needed nap time!

The little guy had been in for a fitting of a headband helmet to correct his head morphology and must have been exposed: he came down with Covid, then his dad, and five days later I started feeling crappy and also positive. So I rescheduled flight for after my quarantine. Feel like crap but this variant isn’t all that different from the first bout I had with it. At least my little sidekick is feeling better!

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He’s so handsome and happy looking! Glad he’s feeling better, hopefully you too get well soon man.

You should start a thread for that movie if it gets made, I’ll bet almost everyone here would like to see it.
 
Your grandson has an interesting face. I particularly like the third picture. He almost seems adult in the way he carries himself(based on still pics), and his facial expressions.
 
He’s at a very fun stage. He loves to ‘read’ books, but insists on turning the pages himself. One is just a cardboard book of animals. After a few days of him turning, me saying the name of the animal in English and Spanish and then making the sound of its call he started making the sounds himself. Another time he looked up at me and opened and closed his mouth as if soundlessly talking. So I mimicked his actions and we went back and forth that way for a while. It was as if he was practicing ’conversing’.
 
Cory, most Danish arborists can't even file a saw correctly, and sure as shit can't put a big tree into a tight lay.

I'm sure they are way better trained in the US.

This is not the first time I've seen a tree bid on an out of this World amount of money, because the bidder didn't have the skills or the balls/ovaries to just drop it.

Do you honestly think that the fact that I fell more trees in a month than most arborists do in 10 years, doesn't make me more precise when it comes to squeezing something into a tight lay?

I wasn't trying to piss on anybody, sorry if it came off that way.

Remember the tree felling video made by Mark Chisholm, where all the pro fallers ( Not just ego boosting me) said crap?
One hell of a arborist, but he'd starve trying to make a living on a logging show.
I get it. I think logger training should be a must for all arborists. Just about every local tree guy I know sucks in comparison to a pro logger. Just watching Gerry's videos has put me a step above many even though my experience is lacking since I'm rarely the one to cut the trees down. It seems to me to be a matter of pride in the US to fell the tree, so I let the other guys make a run for it instead of fighting for the chance.
 
I do well enough the few times per year I fell a tree. Occasionally I butcher a cut, but so far nothing too bad. Understanding how it all works goes a long way toward avoiding and correcting mistakes.
 
Today I replaced the piston and cylinder on a Stihl MS660. It was straight gassed, same as the MS261 I finished yesterday. This one was easier as I got my cheapo ring compressor kit from Amazon today. It just fell together without any fuss. I lubed everything down with 2 cycle oil as well.

I used two different brand kits. Bailey's sells the NWP and Meteor kits with the NWP typically about $10 cheaper. I think the NWP kit looked better and was better packaged, although I did have to trim a few cooling fins for the new style plastic engine cover to fit. Will see how they run after a few tanks of gas before passing judgement on which is better.
 
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